Customers while shopping may wish from time-to-time to know exactly how much money or credit they have available in their various accounts and their most recent transactions. Currently, bank customers who wish to obtain such information through a mobile device are typically required to go through an authentication process, which usually requires entry of a user ID and password each time such customers access the information. Some bank customers may be allowed to access the information on a mobile device using the same user ID and password that they use for online banking, but other customers may be required to use a different user ID and password for mobile device access to their balance and recent transaction information.
In either case, a customer shopping, for example, at a mall who may want to make relatively frequent checks on his or her balances to assure sufficient funds or credit to pay for purchases. This requires repeated typing of the customer's user name and password on his or her mobile device. Moreover, most financial institutions set standards for customer passwords that require unusual characters that may further complicate the process of typing passwords on a customer's mobile device. Thus, typing a password on a small keyboard or touchscreen of a mobile device may be awkward and time consuming.
In the past, financial institutions have made relatively modest improvements for customer convenience, such as, allowing a customer an option to keep a session open for a limited period of time after signing on using his or her user ID and password. Thus, the customer may be allowed to extend the length of a session slightly beyond the period of time normally allocated for a session after the customer signs on. In addition, some financial institutions have moved toward allowing access to limited aspects of a customer's account information without entering a password. However, such offerings carry a significant degree of risk such as exposing the customer's account information to unauthorized persons.
There is a present need for methods and systems for accessing account information electronically that provide a high level of convenience for on-the-go customers of financial institutions, such as banks, who wish to learn quickly and easily how much money or credit they have in their accounts without repeatedly going through complicated sign-on processes, while at the same time providing a number of controls to ensure that the security of customers' information is safely maintained.